China: rebuilding
Xian, the ancient walled city, was once China's capital. Here the emperor who gave his name to this
vast country decreed that a 6,000-strong
terracotta army be created to guard his
tomb for eternity.
Every day 50,000 visitors file past this
statue army as it emerges from the dust of
22 centuries. Every year, thousands of
foreign tourists fly into Xian to see this
eighth wonder of the world and the
region's other historical sites.
Not on their tour agenda, although
impressive in its own right, is the vast
aircraft factory at Yan Liang, 90km
outside Xian. If they were to visit the Xian
Aircraft Company (XAC), foreign tourists
would discover how the demand for air
travel that their presence creates is
revitalising an industry which has a key
role to play in China's economic devel
opment.
Set up in 1958 to build large bomber and
transport aircraft under Soviet licence,
the Xian factory is perhaps the largest
of its kind in China—certainly the
largest visited by Flight—with its
400,000m2 of buildings housing 1,000-plus
machines. But, typically of the factories
visited by Flight, less than one-third of
the Xian workforce is directly involved
From Xian to Shanghai, China's
aircraft industry is gearing up to
meet the country's expected
demand for airliners. Graham
Warwick reports from China,
with photographs by Janice
Lowe.
in aircraft production.
At first glance diving boards, washing
machines, aluminium-frame doors and
windows, satellite dishes, and, of all
things, fairground Ferris wheels may not
have much in common, but they are all
products of the Xian aircraft factory.
To compensate for the reduction in
military work which followed the Cultural
Revolution, China's aircraft factories
turned to the production of domestic
goods. While going some way towards
meeting China's new consumerism, this
move has cushioned the industry in its
transition from wholly military to
predominantly civil aircraft production,
with an ultimate goal of a 60:40 civil-
military balance.
Between 1981 and 1985 China built 135
civil aircraft, mainly at three factories;
28
Harbin in the north, and Xian and
Hanzhong in central China. "Hundreds"
of civil aircraft are to be produced during
the next five-year plan, 1986 to 1990, with
Shanghai emerging as a major manu
facturing centre assembling McDonnell
Douglas MD-82s under licence. Flight's
tour of China's civil aircraft industry took
in the Harbin, Xian, and Shanghai
factories.
Known locally as "Aeroplane Town",
Yan Liang is a long drive from Xian
through a sea of wheatfields dotted with
village "islands". China's new rural pros
perity is evident in the rash of new brick-
built houses springing up everywhere. Yan
Liang, a town of some 60,000, is made
memorable by its beautiful tree-lined
streets. The aircraft factory employs some
10,000, and is large even by Western
standards, but is typically Chinese in its
organisation.
"The company is equal to a small
society," says Yi Zhibin, XAC vice-
president and chief engineer. "Besides the
factory there are the public services—
nursery, primary, and middle schools, col
lege, canteens, shops, and a hospital. We
have to take care of an employee from his
birth to his death, providing his education,
his work, and his home," he adds.
FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 28 June 1986